Golf event raises more than $340K for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation

A summer day of golfing, a gourmet dinner and a concert from Super Diamond led to raising more than $340,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The fifth annual Summer Classic golf tournament, dinner and concert was held Aug. 13 and also included a live and silent acution.

"Super Diamond (a Neil Diamond tribute band) was the perfect addition to our 'Summer Classic' line-up," said Jason Skeoch, co-founder of Active Charity which hosted the fundraiser. "We had four generations of Neil Diamond fans dancing, singing and raising one-third of a million dollars to treat juvenile diabetes."

Active Charity is a group of local businessmen and their supporters who have now raised over $1.4 million dollars for JDRF in the first five years. The charity fundraiser was co-hosted by Tri-Valley Bank. Chevron was a major sponsor.

"Our goal is to cure Type-1 diabetes," said Kelly Craft of JDRF. "This money is essential to our treatment, education and prevention programs. We appreciate the continued support of Active Charity, Wente, our families and all of our sponsors."

The next big JDRF event is the East Bay "Walk to Cure Diabetes" on Sunday, Oct. 24 at Heather Farm Park in Walnut Creek. For more information, visit www.CureType1.org.

The fundraiser was held at Wente. In the past it has been held there and at Blackhawk. I was unable to attend this year, but previous events have been fun and inspiring. JDRF has an A rating as a philanthropy, and 85 cents of every dollar raised goes directly to research. Congratulations to all involved for a successful event and for raising money for such a great cause. Local readers will be interested to know there are over 75 children in the SRVUSD with Type 1 diabetes, an auto-immune disease with no cure.